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TechPlace - Website Design and Development

New ambitious web platform created for urban development practitioners

What they said

“TechPlace.Online is an experimental and ambitious resource to bring together everyone focused on developing the digital economy across Europe and to tell the stories of the cities already making a difference. The Genius Division team really understood the diverse community we are seeking to bring together, and translated this into a fantastic, accessible platform. Great work!”

Background

URBACT is a European Union funded programme that enables cities to work together to develop solutions to major urban challenges and integrate economic, social and environmental topics.

Enterprising Barnsley has been an active participant in the programme through its leadership in the EU wide partnership of TechTown which focuses on maximising job creation within the digital economy. Following the success of TechTown, Enterprising Barnsley appointed us to develop a new web platform for Techplace.online on behalf of URBACT.

Project Objectives

The TechPlace platform would create a community which promotes ongoing conversation and collaboration between all EU partners and other key industry contacts. It would also capitalise on the work already carried out by URBACT, to help towns and cities across the EU to understand the key components of the digital economy and continue to achieve job creation in this field.

The platform aimed to become a naturally evolving information resource for towns and cities across the EU that included easily searchable information while promoting joined up working across regions.

Our Work

We were provided with a technical specification from URBACT which detailed their requirements for the new TechPlace platform. From this document we developed a responsive website built on the highly popular WordPress platform. With a priority on information sharing, we built our design with a clear and easy navigation system, enabling different data and articles to be located without difficulty.

As the website aimed to encourage the growth of a collaborative platform, we included functionality to enable access to articles and blogs, videos, audio and slide decks. We incorporated a searchable database which focused on keywords and thematic areas and enabled content to be downloaded in a range of formats.

To encourage a the TechPlace community to share and grow, we incorporated Slack (an application which enables users to connect and chat).

Creating a positive impact

The new TechPlace online website has been created as a resource to capitalise on the work already carried out by URBACT’s existing digitally focused networks. URBACT’s strategy to plan ahead and utilise their growing network of professionals will ensure they continue to drive their aims and objectives of promoting digital job creation and problem solving of issues within the tech economy.

Our skills and experience have assisted and enabled TechPlace to continue their work and grow their community and knowledge base.

The website was launched at URBACT’s City Festival in Lisbon in September to an audience of 500 urban development practitioners.

How we can help your business

If you are forward planning for your own organisation and considering ways of promoting your ideas and growing your members, please get in touch.

We can help you to create a platform in which your community can discuss and share ideas to promote collaborate working. We can integrate a range of features such as Slack and Podcasts to enable you to reach your audience to promote your organisation or group.

If you’d like to discuss your ideas with us we’re ready to listen and help you make them a reality.